ready player one

chapter two: the easter egg ✔️

the easter egg
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madison's p.o.v:
as i enter, the bright light stuns me for a little bit because, just like every time, i forget to squint my eyes a little. i step off the entryway to the oasis and make my way over to the line up of portals.

i'm here for one reason and one reason only. to find the easter egg. what's that you may ask? in 2040, james halliday died. through the oasis, he hid three keys that unlock three gates which grant the lucky winner total control of the oasis and his stock which is worth about half a trillion dollars.

quoting mr. halliday, "the keys aren't just laying around under a rock somewhere, i suppose you could say they're invisible, hidden in a dark room that's in the center of a maze that is located somewhere up here." in your mind.

a gunter a little while back cracked the clue and found the first challenge which is a race that halliday made that is literally impossible. the gunters, which are the egg hunters, are the only ones who race anymore, other than the sixers. in short terms, the sixers work for nolan sorrento and they study all about james halliday so they can inherit the egg and take over all of halliday's work.

i step through the portal and get ready for the race. i see artemis waiting near the front and start walking towards her but remember that my fuel is low so i head to the back to grab loose coin to fill my tank.

i notice for about the hundredth time, the same delorean that has the same tactic i do and everyone we see each other we do a little smile and wave and continue on with our race.

as the green firework explodes in the sky, i take off in my mach 5 and i see one person already crash. that must suck. i shake my head and laugh as a dart in front of the delorean to grab that coin ahead of me.

skipping ahead a little, i'm almost to the end of the race but it's basically impossible i notice i've caught up with artemis but she's not stopping. she's really going for it.

i see the delorean pull up next to me and he did maybe the dumbest but smartest thing i've ever seen has grabbed artemis by her hand and pulled her off the bike. they ended up rolling a few times while kong crushed her bike and threw it back.

as he helped her up and dusted himself off he offered to have his friend fix her bike. i stepped in and added, "i got it. i've been fixing now for years. you alright arty?" i asked her. she nodded as she snatched her helmet away from... um. "what's your name?" i asked the kid from the delorean. "parzival. and you?" he responded slightly out of breathe. "epiales. you can come with us back to my workshop if you want. i'd love to fix up your delorean... i-i mean, if you need me to." i stuttered. he looked confused, checked out his car and noticed and giant gash in the side of it.

what the hell is wrong with me? the goddess of nightmares doesn't stutter. "sure. lead the way." parzival responded and stepped back and trailed behind me and arty as we walked back to my shop.

i noticed she's been quiet throughout this whole situation. i caught up to her and asked what was wrong and she shook her head. "i'll tell you back at the rebellion." she whispered. i nodded and kept walking.

we finally made it to my shop and i took arty's bike and parz's car. i like that name, it's kinda cu-. never mind. as i got to work on parzival's car i noticed the two of them starting to... not argue but get into a heated debate about james halliday and i just let them go at it.

in about 20-30 minutes, i walked back to the couple and realized they were actually being semi-civil. "hey, you're good to go parz." he looked at me with his cheeks semi red but his eyes held confusion as i threw him his delorean. "um, thanks. i'll see both of you around?" he asked with hope in his eyes. i nodded and ushered him out of my shop.

arty turned to me and asked, "do you want to go back and meet me at the place?"i nodded as i slipped off my gamer goggles. i came face to face with my van doors, set my equipment down and made my way to the rebellion.

you see, the rebellion is a group of people they banded together to try and take down IOI. that's where i met artemis, also formally known as samantha.

well actually, i was in the market one day and me and samantha ran into each other and both of our glasses got knocked off. we looked at each other and noticed thing things we were trying to conceal.

she has a birth mark down the side of her face and i had one blue eye and one a lot darker than the other. we laughed and introduced ourselves to each other and the rest is history!

i walked into the common room and met up with samantha. "hey girl!" i made my presence known. she ran up to me and hugged me as tight as she could. "it's been so long in real life!" she laughed.

for the rest of the day we strategized about how to get through the race but then sam brought up a certain someone out of no where. "so mrs. goddess of nightmares, why's parzival got you all choked up?" she asked with a smirk. "i don't know what you're talking about." i said with a little too much confidence which was a bad move on my part.

"i knew it. you're so into him!" she said with a fake sense of shock as she collapsed on me. a little over dramatic if i go say so myself. i pushed her off while she laid on the floor laughing. "i barley know the kid! i mean, h-his avatar is kinda cute.. but bedsides the point!" i defended.

i checked the time and noticed i was an hour late to my dads place. "shit, i gotta go sam. i'm late." as i ran towards the door, she grabbed my wrist. "why don't you stay with the rebellion? we can be your family." sam asked with sadness in her eyes. i shook my head and ran my way back home.

as i stepped through the door, i was automatically thrown against the wall and slapped by my father. "i tell you every day to be home by a certain time to make me dinner and you can't even follow that one simple rule?" he asked with anger running through his veins. i can almost taste the alcohol that's on his breath.

as i stood there stuttering, he let me go, kicked me and forced me to go make dinner. as i was in the kitchen i heard yelling from two stacks above me. i had my window open so smoke could make its way out of the kitchen and they must of left their window open too.

all i heard was something about stealing gloves and something about loosing everything but one voice stood out to me in particular. a small, dainty voice that sounded so familiar trying to defend himself. 

not gonna lie, i felt bad for the kid but it wasn't any of my business. i felt a huge thud and the kitchen shake which means someone fell to the ground. i shut the window after dinner was done, set it down in front of my dad and ate my own in the kitchen.

after i was done, i made my way to the booth in our kitchen that's supposed to be seating for our dinning table but is never used so that's where i sleep. i snuggle up in the cushions that are now flattened because of how many years i've slept on them and went to sleep to the sounds of the buzzing of people still on the oasis.

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a/n // chapter two is finally done!! i hope y'all enjoyed! maybe parzival and epiales might get somewhere in the near future 🤷🏼‍♀️ maybe madison will find out that parz actually lives two floors above her. only time will tell 😈😈 enjoy and happy gunting!